I was busy

Wow. What a weekend. It was filled with wonderful people, food and conversation.

I headed out of Hemberg last Thursday and arrived at Debbie's house about three hours later. There, we did some last planning and train connection checking while I finished off that night's supper.

I began Friday by sharing a breakfast with Debbie's grandma, whose attic I slept in. She speaks no English which meant I had to communicate in German. She also can't hear very well so I had to repeat things a lot, which was good practice for my language skills. Friday was an especially busy day, with me being 'responsible' to pick up everyone from where they were arriving. The first person was Matt, a Dutch trainee, who flew in to the airport at about 10:30. I had been expecting a call from Meredith before this time, but she had to rush onto a train in Geneva. She had flown in from Wichita that day. Finally easing my growing worries, she called from the Basel train station, safe and sound. Around this time, Debbie, who had to teach that morning, also showed up. Blaire came in on time back out at the airport and our posse was almost complete. Charles came in around 5:30 and we made our way to Debbie's house.

This whole weekend emerged from a Facebook wall post that Meredith sent to me back in November: "You may just be the impetus for a highly improbable Swiss Spring Break that Blaire and I are talking about. I want it pretty badly, but let's not get too crazy just yet. In any case, you should eat lots of cheese, all the time." Like she said, it was highly improbable but as time went on and tickets got cheaper, the planets aligned and things started happening. Not wanting everyone to have to travel all the way out to the boonies of Switzerland, I asked Debbie if we could get together at her place. She said yes and plans began to form.

Friday night we had a traditional Swiss meal of fondue. For this meal, you have a long metal fork and cut cubes of bread. You then dip the bread into the cheese and eat it. It's a very simple meal that doesn't take much preparation and makes for fun conversation.

We went to the Basel Zoo on Saturday. While a bit windy, the weather was wonderful. The weather was great all weekend.

Charles and Meredith on the train:



Baby hippo:



Much of the crew watching the baby hippo:



Monkeys!:





Debbie petting a horned animal:



We then left the zoo and traveled down to the Rhine River and sat on the waterfront for awhile, lazily watching the water travel by:



Matt is my Dutch counterpart, he's the Dutch Trainee Rep:



Sunday was another day spent outside. We went up a gondola to the top of a Swiss hill, which would be considered a mountain by Kansas standards.



"Asian Tourist Pose":



We did a lot of hiking. It was almost too much hiking on snow and ice for my knees to handle. They let me know of it. The views were worth the pain though:





This morning, Blaire headed back to the airport and eventually to Barcelona where she's been studying this semester. Meredith meanwhile went the other way to Luzern. She plans on doing a day of skiing and then meeting back up with Blaire in Barcelona.



I hung out at Debbie's place until later in the afternoon when I made my trek back to Hemberg. While changing trains in a town, I couldn't help but notice the return of the smell of spring rain. Though it was still quite nippy and windy, this smell made me breathe deeper and enjoy my surroundings.

I don't have much more on my palette. Phil will be in Rudesheim for Easter and I may take advantage of the four-day weekend and finally visit him. I'm sure you'll hear about it.

Until next time,
Jon